Have a Piece of Cake

I had two kinds of "cake" on my birthday, but most Americans wouldn't recognize either kind. Within walking distance of our apartment, I happened to walk by a restaurant called 港式飲茶 gong sik yum cha "Hong Kong-style tea drinking", so I knew it was a Cantonese 點心 dim sum restaurant.  So that's where Greg, Soleil and I went on my birthday. One dish was called 芋頭糕 yùtougāo which is translated as taro cake. Taro is a purplish white starchy root.  Another dish was 蘿蔔糕 Mandarin: luóbogāo, Cantonese: lo bak gou, or turnip cake. I believe it is made of daikon radish.  Anyway, these square "cakes" are as dense and heavy like jello... or maybe thick mud.  They taste better than they sound but they are not at all sweet. In fact, you can eat them with soya sauce. They do not come with frosting or candles and they are not even usually a birthday food. You can find them at a Cantonese tea house along with a wide variety of tasty snacks that all add up to a meal.

Turnip cake

Moon Festival 中秋節 Zhōng Qiū Jié

September 19 is this year's Moon Festival.  Chinese people eat moon cakes 月餅yuèbǐng and enjoy looking at the full moon.  Moon cakes are round, like the moon, and have a thin soft crust and a heavy dense filling inside that has the consistency of play dough.  I've never tried sculpting anything with it, though. There are many different flavors of moon cakes.  A common one is sweet red bean paste with a dry egg yoke in the middle.  I have no idea how they dry the egg yoke.  Soleil can't stand the egg part but I love it, especially with the red bean paste. Please enjoy the following delicious picture.

Pomelo and moon cakes

Here in Taiwan people also celebrate moon festival by eating one of my favorite fruits, 柚子 yòuzi,  pomelo. It is a citrus bigger than a grapefruit, and way better.  It is dry in your hands but juicy in your mouth, and it isn't bitter like grapefruit.  Another local custom is to barbecue meat this time of year.  One of my teachers tells me that this is not a traditional habit; it is a modern trend so food sellers can make money.

Eating 柚子 yòuzi during Moon Festival is a popular custom in Taiwan. Foreigners demonstrate wearing the peel on their heads.